08/05/2007

Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump
Michael Moore ponders a question at a panel discussion.

One guy with two images

Moore on life as a celebrity — and neighbor

By KATHY GIBBONS

Features editor

Michael Moore stopped at the Record-Eagle to talk the week before the start of the 2007 Traverse City Film Festival. He'd been asked to do an interview on his life as a celebrity vs. his life as the everyday guy he comes across as, and had about a half an hour.

It was late in the day and he had to get back to Alden to meet his wife, Kathleen Glynn, for an early evening event at the library near their home there. Then he was going to catch a red-eye to California.

It had been a whirlwind few months. His new film, "Sicko,” had opened to excellent reviews. After less than three weeks in theaters, it had become one of the top five grossing documentaries. Among those also are his Oscar-winning "Bowling for Columbine” and "Fahrenheit 9/11,” the most successful documentary ever.

"I'll be sleeping in Beverly Hills tonight to be on Jay Leno tomorrow,” he said. "I was just on a month ago and because Jay and the people who produce the show were deeply affected by the movie, they want to continue the discussion.”

That's pretty much how his life had been for months though, jetting back and forth from home in northern Michigan to California, New York, Cannes — to finish and promote "Sicko,” then screening and selecting films and tending to other details for the Traverse City Film Festival in between.

But it's the life he has carved out — one part Hollywood and the other part regular old Michigan. He said he's the same person regardless, but admits that his film career has made him privy to a world that everyday people don't see.

"People like me from Flint, Michigan don't get to look behind the curtain,” he said. "I've seen so many crazy things happen and behaviors that are bizarre, inappropriate ... what you see on the news is really the tip of the iceberg.”

Moore said he's also met a lot of good down to earth people in the film industry. Still, he and Glynn choose to make their home in Michigan.

"I have found the way to survive it all is to remain true to yourself, be an authentic person, and don't try to pretend,” he said. "I still wear the same clothes that I wore. I still have the same friends. I'm married to the same woman I've been with for 26 years.”

But Moore can't go anywhere without being stopped by people who want to talk. In other states, he said, he gets treated like a celebrity. Back home in Michigan, though, people treat him like "I'm a neighbor down the street.”

"Just before we finished making the film ('Sicko'), we wanted to do a test screening in Ann Arbor and Flint. People feel comfortable to be critical of me there,” he said. "So when we arrived in the Detroit airport with the New York producers, I told them people are going to be talking to me like they're borrowing a quart of milk. And right away, some guy came up and said, "Heard you are going to be showing your movie in Flint tonight — it's going to have to be shorter than the last one.'

"I like that. it's refreshing to me. I want to be treated like a normal person.”

Not everyone is friendly, of course. Moore is a controversial figure, and a popular target because of his political views.

"The public Michael Moore and the private Michael Moore are actually the same person,” he said. "But there's been a fictional character created by the right wing media.”

He admits to having pangs over having fed the rancor with his 2003 Oscars speech, in which he rebuked President Bush for "fighting a war for fictitious reasons.” It's not that he didn't mean it, he said, but it was one of those times where "from the minute it happened, I was filled with a moment of personal regret” for the ramifications it could have with "people who don't know me, and haven't seen my films.”

"In order to maintain my sanity, I've had to divorce the real me and separate it from the view of me that's been made up by the media,” he said.

But there's a limit to that thick skin. While he and Glynn have a place in New York, they consider Antrim County to be home. And he admits it bothers him when wire service stories that question his integrity — like one recently that suggested some of the facts in "Sicko” weren't accurate — turn up in what he considers to be his hometown paper.

But how can that be? Doesn't controversy go with the territory of being Michael Moore?

"This is where I live.”

He may get the last word, though.

"I'm basically always taking notes,” he said. "I'm going to write about this someday.”